Kirby Smart, Bulldogs preview 2025 Charlotte football game

Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart and two players, x, spoke with the media on Monday about their upcoming home game against the Charlotte 49ers.

4th-ranked Georgia (9-1, 7-1 SEC) and Charlotte (1-9, 0-7 American) will square off on Saturday, Nov. 22 at Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga. The game will be televised by the SEC Network at 12:45pm ET (Buy Tickets).

Taylor Zarzour will call the play-by-play, Matt Stinchcomb will provide analysis, while Alyssa Lang will report from the sidelines.

Head Coach Kirby Smart

Opening Statement…
We’re looking forward to this week as we prep. It’s always a special day for our seniors. These guys have their last home game or what’s scheduled to be their last home game, so it’s a special moment. It’s always hard for me because of the tradition and the moments we’ve had with a lot of these guys. So it’s a tremendous group to get to go out and play Charlotte in front of their families and the Georgia fan base. So we’ll begin the prep for those guys today and this week.

On CJ Allen’s status…
He’ll be week to week and see when we can get him back.

On approaching the SEC Championship Game scenarios…
We’re worried about Charlotte, so we’re focused on them. We’re getting ready for those guys, and that’s who we’ll prepare for. Next week, we’ll have a plan for the following week, in terms of people breaking things down. It’s not a difficult time because we’re worried about getting better.

On the linebackers’ performance against Texas…
All of those guys rolled in there with Chris [Cole], Justin [Williams], and Raylen [Wilson] playing snaps. Those guys continue to grow and get better. They practiced well this year and are continuing to get more depth in that room, but I was proud of the way those guys played a few more snaps.

On Chauncey Bowens’ status…
It’ll be day-to-day, and hopefully we’ll get him back. I hadn’t actually had a chance to see Chauncey [Bowens] yet, but he was doing rehab this morning and had a good report from that.

On Gabe Harris Jr…
I think Gabe [Harris Jr.] has been really consistent. He has been playing really hard and really physical. He’s a twitchy player that we need in terms of being disruptive in movements and striking blockers. He’s really tough and physical. He’s been really durable, and I have been very pleased with his consistency throughout the entire season.

On James Coley’s impact on the wide receiver group…
[James] Coley does a tremendous job. He’s a really good teacher. He’s passionate about his game. Every day he goes into his meeting room prepared to teach, to challenge and to motivate. He fires up NFL tape – whether it’s Ja’Marr Chase or an NFL wideout, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith. The concepts we use in our offense are very common in the NFL, so those guys really like seeing the guys they look up to running those routes. Coley does a good job integrating those things into his meeting to make it interesting. He teaches the toughness we need at that position and the skill set. He’s done a good job recruiting, and I’ve been very pleased with what James has done.

On Javon Wims’ work with the wide receivers…
Javon [Wims] works with those guys too. It’s great because [James] Coley knew Javon when he was here, and they have a good relationship. He gives good energy and experience. He’s a guy that has played at that level and demands a lot of those guys. He pushes them, and he’s not afraid to challenge them and I think that’s helpful.

On how he’ll remember the 2025 senior class…
The majority of this senior class has had an increased role – at least from a leadership perspective, maybe a snap perspective in some guys’ cases – this year. There were a lot of seniors last year and this class has been unique in that this season has been different. They’ve been a part of the new culture. The were the first real senior class that was brought into this group. A couple of them left last year. Malaki [Starks] and Mykel [Williams] were all part of this class that’s gone. When you look across the board, the fourth-year seniors were kind of the first – I mean, it was in its infancy – in the NIL stage and phases. I’m proud of them and love them like I do the others, and I want them to continue to grow.

On the growth of the younger players…
We’re going to be young every year. I don’t think college football is going to have old teams anymore. I think they’re going to be young across the board, and I’m going to have to get used to being patient because it is what it is. How fast can you grow your youth compared to others? I’m proud of this group and what they’ve done. They’ve got good intangibles. They work hard. They’ll get tested this week in terms of their focus and how well they can continue to elevate as opposed to just sitting there. They have to make a choice on whether they want to continue to get better.

On the challenge of winning SEC games in this era…
I think that’s a hard question to answer. It’s a hard comparison because my perspective as a player and my perspective as an assistant is very different than my perspective as a head coach. It has changed within that window you talked about. I don’t know that the early years that you’re talking about in the five-year span were that different than those years that I was an assistant. But the last two, since the expansion and the increased transiency and the increase in NIL, it’s become a more parity league in the last two. So, probably within that five-year span you’re talking about in that record. It has been harder on the back end of it.

On Oscar Delp’s growth…
He was really mature last year. He was a third-year player that was really like a fourth-year player, and this year he’s a fourth-year player that’s like a fifth-year player. He does things naturally that you just get over time. He’s really smart, really wise and has great spatial awareness of who to block and when to block them. You can put more on Oscar than you can somebody else because he’s seen it all and done it all. You can’t put a value, and I don’t mean a monetary value, I mean like a value in terms of our team, on what he does for the team. He’s just incredible. He leads. He’s got passion, fire and energy. He’s playing really physical this year, and he has grown up. He’s practiced better too this year, but he didn’t practice poorly before, he has just improved that. He fits the identity of our offense really well. He fits Gunner [Stockton] really well because some of the things that he does are made possible through guys like Oscar and Lawson [Luckie].

On the key to red zone success…
The ability to run the ball. If you struggle to run the ball, you’re going to struggle in the red area. There’s nowhere else to go. You can’t throw it up there in the 10th row. You’ve got to go through somebody’s face, and that’s hard to do for a lot of people. It’s hard to do for us, but we’re committed to it. It’s the same way on defense. You’ve got to be able to stop them from doing that. I think Gunner’s legs have helped with that. Creativity on offense with [Mike] Bobo and his staff, John Lilly in particular, helps with the red area. They’ve done a tremendous job.

On Christen Miller’s status…
As far as I know, he’s good.

On Monroe Freeling’s impact…
His demeanor, character, leadership. He approaches the game the right way with a growth mindset of being open to getting better. He knows that he can improve, and I think he knows that humility is a week away in this league because he’s blocking good players.

On Gunner Stockton being a Heisman candidate…
​​I would defer to you guys and the people that judge that in terms of what that consists of. It’s hard for me to lobby for that. What I will say is that he embodies everything about that award, resiliency, character, determination. All of those words that embody a Heisman Trophy winner, Gunner [Stockton] has it, and he’s done it on the biggest stages, in front of the biggest audiences, against some of the toughest competition at a really high level. He’s playing well, and he’s playing to make the people around him better, and his value to our team is immense.

On Demello Jones…
It creates value for him. It creates value for our team. We have what we want to be a tough, physical team. It’s hard to be that if you don’t have players that are willing to stick their face in there and tackle. He was that way in high school. He was that way in basketball. He’s been that way competitively all his life. He’s done it. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s that way. He buys into that culture of toughness and that showed Saturday night.

On Collin Gill…
He’s Physical, big, tough, plays on special teams, and not afraid to hit you and play in different positions for them.

On Ryan Puglisi’s development…
Ryan [Puglisi] is doing a great job. He gets a lot of work, as well as Ryan Montgomery. Both those guys get extra reps during the week. They get reps on Mondays and do extra throwing and they both continue to grow.

On balancing physicality in practice with players not wanting it…
We schedule them. The ones that want to leave, we schedule them. We try to get them on the schedule because when they want to leave because they’re not physical, that means they’re probably going to a place that’s not physical. We like those places. We like to play them. We prefer them if you can get them on the schedule. It’s one of those deals that you don’t run from hard in life. If you run from hard in life, you’ll find more hard.